In what will come across as a rather shocking
development, a young school teacher has been
found dead in her room.
She was supposed to go to her parents’ house at
Oshodi on that fateful Friday like she usually did
every weekend after closing from work as a
secondary school teacher at Abule Oko, a
community in Ogun State.
Oshodi on that fateful Friday like she usually did
every weekend after closing from work as a
secondary school teacher at Abule Oko, a
community in Ogun State.
But this day — June 23, 2016 — turned out to be
different for both her and her family.
After waiting till Friday night and still didn’t hear
anything from her daughter, with her two mobile
phone lines switched off, her father was troubled
and had to come looking for her.
There and then he got one of the most shocking
moments any parent could ever witness.
The door to her apartment was locked, but one of
the windows was opened.
He asked her neighbours whether they had seen
her that day, but all of them said no. They last saw
her on Thursday when she returned from work.
He was confused, didn’t know whether his
daughter was inside or not, so he kept on trying
her phone lines, all to no avail.
After reaching his patience limit, he called on a
carpenter in the area to force the door open and
then everyone was horrified — her daughter laid in
her own blood, a pillow case covering her face and
her body already swollen.
Someone had murdered her in cold blood when
she was sleeping and had taken her two mobile
phones away.
According to an eyewitness who spoke on
condition on anonymity, the death of Yemisi
Tiamiyu, a 27-year-old University of Lagos
graduate, is still one of the most mysterious
events the source had ever witnessed.
“It is still a mystery to me up till now because
Yemisi was an easygoing lady who could never
have offended anybody,” the source said. “I saw
her last on Thursday and we greeted before she
went to sleep. When I didn’t see her on Friday, I
thought she went to work early, which was strange,
only for us to find her on Saturday murdered when
her door was forced open on the order of her
father.”
What could have led to her murder?
The source said no one had yet to find out, but
that she was seen on the day before she was
murdered shouting at a guy on the phone.
The source said, “I overheard her shouting at a guy,
I think it’s her boyfriend, on the phone. Both of
them were involved in a heated argument and she
was uttering the words: ‘Leave me alone. Leave me
alone. I don’t want you in my life again.’ I even told
her to take it easy with him and asked what the
argument was all about, but she didn’t say
anything. She was a conservative lady, she didn’t
talk much to people.
“She told me not to worry, that she would sort out
everything. That was on Thursday evening. She
must have been murdered in the early hours of
Friday and there is suspicion she was killed by the
guy. It is very painful what the murderer did to a
very beautiful lady like Yemisi.”
One would expect that this atrocity would have
generated an outrage and a cry for justice by the
family, the school where she taught, the residents
and the community, but the reverse is the case.
In fact, the source who spoke to our correspondent
said everyone — including her family — had been
trying to let the situation lie low.
“They strictly warned us never to let the incident
leak out. But how could I, as a human being, keep
quiet when a fellow human being was murdered in
a mysterious circumstance? What is the family
hiding? Why is everyone keeping quiet over this
issue?” the source bemoaned.
Asked if the source had ever seen the guy with
Tiamiyu before, the source said, “I have never seen
him before, so I don’t know how he looks.”
Wanting to let the incident ‘die’ was clearly evident
when our correspondent visited the deceased’s
apartment on 24, Unity Crescent, Abule Oko.
The unpainted house sits idly between two
uncompleted buildings, locked up. Everywhere was
quiet, except for the chattering of some
neighbours.
“We don’t want to talk about this issue and we are
not going to. Whoever informed you of this incident
should also tell you who killed Yemisi. There is an
order to that effect, even by her father and the rest
of the family. We don’t know the murderer; we have
never seen him,” one of them spoke harshly to our
correspondent.
The school where the deceased taught, Tobbles
Primary and Secondary School, a few metres from
her apartment, had also been warned by the family
and the community not to say anything about the
incident, but the administrator of the school,
simply Kolawole, had no choice but to say a few
things about the incident when it was clear to him
that the incident could no longer be kept secret.
He said, “She was one of our staff members and
she had not spent up to a year here when the
incident happened. I saw her last on Thursday
before the incident occurred. I was going round for
supervision and when I got to the staffroom where
the teachers were, I saw her. I was cracking jokes
with them before I left. She taught the secondary
classes and she was hardworking. On Friday when I
was carrying out another supervision, as I do every
day, I didn’t see her, so I asked her colleagues,
‘Where is Yemisi?’ They said they had not seen her
and had they had been trying to call her, but her
numbers were not going through.
“Every Friday, I learned she usually went to her
parents’ house at Oshodi. But on this fateful day,
we didn’t see her and the only means we could
contact her was through her phone lines. I didn’t
call her, but all her colleagues were calling her, but
her lines were not going through. I was in the
church on Sunday around 12 noon when my boss
called me that somebody called him that Yemisi
was found dead. I screamed, ‘What happened to
her?’ I asked. It was strange and I couldn’t
concentrate again in the church service as a
pastor. In fact, the people around me saw that I
had lost my mind. They were wondering what
happened to me. It’s like you are flowing and then
you suddenly lose focus.
“This was a lady in her prime years and that day, I
had to leave Lambe, where my church is, and had
to get to her residence. When I got there, the house
had been shut. I saw some people coming out in
mourning.”
On the type of person Ms Tiamiyu was, Kolawole
said, “She was very cool a lady, easygoing. She
didn’t talk much. She was not troublesome. She
was an introvert and a formal type of person. Very
conservative. So it was strange when we heard
what happened to her. We mourned her for a week
here. All activities were suspended. The situation
got everyone moody.”
The leader of the community, simply called Baba
Lati, was not around when our correspondent
visited the area on Thursday, but on learning about
the purpose of the visit, he screamed on the
phone, “Who told you that? Where did you get your
information from? Don’t come and cause problem
and confusion for us in this community. Even the
father of the deceased has stated categorically that
he doesn’t want to let this matter leak. Go away!”
When our correspondent visited the deceased’s
Facebook page, she had in time past been sharing
tips on relationship and men.
On July 15, 2015, she posted, “If you lose your
mind because someone says he or she doesn’t love
you, what will happen when you eventually meet the
person who loves you? Always value yourself.”
On January 11, 2013, she shared, “Men who beat
their wives are heartless and will never change
because heart transplant is very expensive.”
On November 6, 2012, she wrote, “If a guy cannot
love you for who you are, what will happen when
you start giving birth? When a guy loves you only
because of your stature, watch it.”
A few of her friends also expressed shock at her
death.
“I can’t believe you are gone, still shocks me,” her
friend, Teniola Adesanya, wrote, while another,
Omoniarami Asanikehinde, simply said, “Rest in
peace, dear.”
Up till now, Tiamiyu’s killer has yet to be found.
The Ogun State police spokesperson Muyiwa
Adejobi said the command had yet to learn of the
incident until our correspondent brought it to the
command’s notice.
Source: The Punch
